Table 2.

Summary of clinical outcomes of the two groups

Observation variables	PELD	MED	P value
Blood loss (mL)	10.8 ± 9.0	71.3 ± 23.3	<  0.001
Operating time (min)	78.5 ± 32.6	81.1 ± 13.3	0.406
Hospital stay (hours)	22.7 ± 4.2	48.1 ± 22.7	<  0.001
VAS-B	0.8 ± 0.4	1.1 ± 0.7	0.001
VAS-L	0.6 ± 0.4	0.8 ± 0.6	0.224
ODI (%)	12.9 ± 3.2	15.1 ± 10.3	0.220
Complications rate (%)	9.4	12.1	0.471
Overall recurrence rate (%)	6.7	6.0	0.201
One-year recurrence rate (%)	5.2	0.9	0.042

PELD Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy, MED Microendoscopic discectomy, VAS-B Visual analogue scale for the back, VAS-L Visual analogue scale for the legs, ODI Oswestry dysfunction index